1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a scan apparatus, and more particularly, to a scan apparatus with PictBridge capability for scanning a photograph.
2. Related Art
With the popularity of digital cameras, the photograph printer that can directly print photographs has become a popular consumer electronic product. Companies and enterprises devoted to researching and manufacturing photograph printers have gradually developed digital cameras and photograph printers of different specifications. As digital cameras and photograph printers from different companies and enterprises are different in manufacturer and model, a compatibility problem among digital cameras with photograph printers of different models occurs.
To solve such a problem, in 2002, the Direct Print Standard (DPS) via universal serial bus (USB) was worked out by the cooperation of Canon, Fuji Film, HP, Olympus, Seiko Epson, and Sony. In the past, only digital cameras and photograph printers of the same vender could be connected to each other via a USB wire to print directly. Hereafter, with the direct print standard (DPS), any digital camera and photograph printer both adopting the DPS could be connected to each to print directly.
Afterward, the Digital Photo Solutions for Imaging Devices, i.e., the so called PictBridge standard, named by the Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA), became dominant.
Currently, there are two ways to print a photograph after it is scanned. One way is shown in FIG. 1. A light source 100 in a scanner 20 projects a scanning light M onto a photograph 10 to be scanned. The scanning light M is reflected by the photograph 10 to be scanned, and a reflected light L is generated. The reflected light L is then received by an image sensor 200 in the scanner 20, a corresponding image signal is generated and output. Then, the image signal is converted into a digital image data by a signal converter 300 of the scanner 20. Then, the digital image data is transmitted to an electronic device 50 connected to the scanner 20 via a data bus 400. After that, a user uses the electronic device 50 to display, recognize, edit, store, and output images. Further, the electronic device 50 may be a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a palm handheld computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile phone, etc. The digital image data that has already been edited by the electronic device 50 is transmitted to a printer 30 connected to the electronic device 50. After being printed by the printer 30, a printed photograph 40 is obtained from the printer 30.
However, this operating method is inconvenient, and as for the user without a computer, buying one is a great additional burden.
The other way is to print by a so-called multifunction printer (MFP). A photograph is directly scanned by the scanning module of the multifunction printer, and then, it is directly printed by the printing module of multifunction printer. On the other hand, since the multifunction printer has various processing functions, the price is high. Therefore, with the above methods, even for the user only requiring the functions of scanning and directly printing, expensive devices must be acquired, which is undesirable.